Golf is a popular sport played by people of widely varying ages and skill levels. Therefore, many devices have been developed to assist golfers and enhance their enjoyment of the sport. Among these are devices built into a golf putter head for picking up a golf ball from the surface of the putting green and/or from the cup without bending over or stooping down. The golf ball retrieving devices fall into two categories: 1) rearward facing cavities that scoop the golf ball from the green or other surface by moving the club head backward, and 2) receptacles in the sole of the club head that frictionally grip the golf ball in order to retrieve the ball from the green or from the cup. All of these putter heads have shortcomings, however.
Many commercially available putter heads of both the blade type and the mallet type fall within the first category and are constructed with rear cavities that enable a golf ball to be scooped from the green or other surface. A certain level of skill, however, is necessary for a golfer to successfully retrieve a ball using this type of devise.
The second category of prior putter heads are mallet or wide blade style putter heads that include a restricted cylindrical, conical, semi-cylindrical or semi-conical receptacle in the bottom of the putter head. Downward pressure is applied on the ball with the putter head to compress the ball around a significant portion of its diameter and squeeze it into a restricted opening. This pressure and compression may damage both the ball and the green. In addition, it is difficult to see the ball and guide it into the receptacle because the putter head covers all or a large portion of the ball. Some of the ball-retrieving devises also employ roughened surfaces or sharp edges to more securely grip the ball. These rough surfaces and sharp edges also may damage the ball.
The putter heads of the second category that are designed to retrieve a golf ball from the cup must have a length from toe to heel that will fit within the 4.25 inches diameter of the cup. In this case, the short length of the putter head makes it difficult to place the putter face in an orthogonal orientation to the desired line of travel of the ball. Placing a golf club within the cup to retrieve a ball also may cause substantial damage to the cup.
Concentration is essential when putting. A golfer looking down at the putter head when aligning a putt and making a stroke sees the putter head in just two dimensions. The popular heel and toe weighted, narrow blade type of putter head presents to the golfer a very clean, generally rectangular, non-distracting top planar profile of about 1 inch by about 5 inches. Most of the second category of prior ball-retrieving devises, however, require radical variations from this basic putter head profile and could well distract the golfer during the alignment or the stroke. The second category of putter head is seldom, if ever, available commercially.
All of the prior putter heads, whether blade type or mallet type and whether category one or category two, have the ball-retrieving receptacle positioned centrally between the toe and the heel of the putter, and behind the front striking face of the putter head.